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Bench play in the playoffs and other thoughts.

I'm sick of hearing about how great Boston's bench was in Game 1 already. Not that it's not true, it's just not unexpected to me. Almost invariably, the bench players for the home team in the playoffs perform much better than the road team. For this series, Ricky Davis will be the only player that brings it off the bench for either team in every game. I expect that the other players (Fred and James, Al Jefferson, Banks, etc.) will have good games at home and be below-average on the road. It seems like it's been that way for years. I think one way to remedy that problem this series would be to bring SJax in off the bench. He would be similar to Ricky Davis and be able to score either at home or on the road.

We have to get better play from Anthony Johnson if we're going to win this series. He has to keep Gary Payton out of the lane. I don't care if Payton hits 20 jumpers over him in a row, he can't get right out on top of him. I'll take my chances with Payton taking mildly contested jumpers over AJ rather than him getting into the lane and getting the whole team involved.

We can't leave LaFrentz. We just can't. There's one thing that guy can do offensively and we just left him wide open to do just that in Game 1. I would hope that this point has been emphasized by now, although I'm not sure why it wouldn't have been before the series started.

We need Reggie to be aggressive. His strength is shooting and when he doesn't look to shoot he is less of a player. He needs to shoot 20 times a game, no exceptions.

Save me all of the praise for Boston. The Pacers were terrible in Game 1 and any playoff team would've beaten them soundly in that game. Just like 2 years ago, I'm already starting to hear all this crap about how good Boston is. Just like 2 years ago, if they beat us, they will get swept in the next round. They are not great, but we are making them look great with absolutely pathetic play.

Finally, the thing I hate the worst about playoff basketball is the over-reaction to EVERY GAME. These are 7 game series and nothing really happens in these series until a team wins on the road. Everyone is all over the Celtics right now but if we win Game 2 nobody will remember Game 1. It will all be about the Pacers stealing homecourt advantage. Boston beat us badly in Game 1, but that game is meaningless if we take Game 2. So the media that has already awarded the series to the Celtics based on one game (and to any fans that have as well) is showing that they don't really understand what playoff basketball is about.

Re: Bench play in the playoffs and other thoughts.

We need to not play our bench. We're already shorthanded, and we're the underdog.

If we're going to go down, it should be with our (remaining) big guns. I look for JO, SJax, Dale, Reggie and AJ to all play at least 38-46 minutes in Game #2.

There are no back-to-back's here. Our bench should not be a variable in this series at all, except to give our starters brief breaks.

Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
And life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in black elms,
Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

Re: Bench play in the playoffs and other thoughts.

I doubt Reggie and Dale CAN play that many minutes. And JO is still recovering (obviously). AJ could play more minutes, but if he's playing like he did last time there doesn't seem to be a point. SJax may have to play 48 every night, particularly if he's our only source of offense again.